The money is to be handed over by the Russians under an annex to the Yamal contract signed by Gazprom and the Polish state-run oil and gas company.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin, who is also Minister of State Assets, said: “You can win even with such a difficult partner as Gazprom if you conduct a consistent policy backed by arguments.”
The repayment of the USD 1.5 billion will be for gas supplied to Poland after November 1, 2014, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The move follows a decision in late March by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. The ruling came in a case over a pricing dispute that began in November 2014.
PGNiG CEO Jerzy Kwieciński said in March: "The court agreed with us—the prices we were paying for Russian gas were too high and not market prices.”
He added that PGNiG would continue efforts to diversify Poland’s gas supplies and wean the country off Russian sources.
A Polish official in April suggested his country could seize assets belonging to Gazprom if the Russian gas giant did not pay the amount in question.
(pk/gs)
Source: IAR